AP Placement

[Adam42]

Hi Everyone 

I have a warehouse that I want to cover with Meraki AP's 2802i and 2802E. 

The space is about 2500 square meters(8202 square feet), and about 7 meters highs(23 feet high)

Any suggestions on how many AP's 

Thanks!

[BrechtSchamp]

Hi Adam,

Please do a site survey. That's the best way to accurately determine where and how many access points you need. There are a lot of factors in play. How high are the shelves? What materials are stored in the warehouse? How do the aisles line up? At what height do the APs need to be (although the height may be 7m , that doesn't necessarily mean the APs need to be at the top, sometimes they're hung from chains)... Also sometimes choosing directional antennas on the walls beaming into the aisles is better. What kind of applications will be using the Wi-Fi: just data? also VOIP, maybe video streaming, location based services, maybe you're using handheld scanners that use session based applications which are very sensitive to roaming...

Only a professional site survey company will take all factors into account and maximize your chances of getting it right the first time. The cost of the site survey really isn't that high, especially if you take into account that redoing or adding extra wiring and access points will likely be much more expensive than a site survey.

Sorry for this answer, but it really is the way to go.

[Adam42]

Hi BrechtSchamp,

Thank you for your answer,

Well, currently the Warehouse is still in construction so i can't make a site survey. it's an open space without any interference, my concern is that i need to cover all the range of 2500 meter square with a better wireless quality. the APs will be connected to a Cisco Catalyst 3850 Switch .

It matter of cost so i need to choose the best location to have both less cost and a better quality .

Thank you 

[BrechtSchamp]

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@Adam42 wrote:

Hi BrechtSchamp,

Thank you for your answer,

Well, currently the Warehouse is still in construction so i can't make a site survey. it's an open space without any interference, my concern is that i need to cover all the range of 2500 meter square with a better wireless quality. the APs will be connected to a Cisco Catalyst 3850 Switch .

It matter of cost so i need to choose the best location to have both less cost and a better quality .

Thank you 

---

In that case I would still recommend a site survey. A good survey partner would be capable to do a site survey based on floorplans and a questionnaire (sometimes they also do a site visit, even if the building isn't final). After installation ideally you should do a verification survey to check for unexpected sources of interference/attenuation. A theoretical approach likely misses these.

Also, don't forget that even in an "open" warehouse you'll still have attenuation from the shelves and what's stored in them.

[Nash]

My team lead is a very good wireless engineer, and she has done preemptive surveys exactly as @BrechtSchamp describes. The folks building the warehouse should already know where everything is going, including matters such as shelf height, positioning, materials, what's being stored there, etc.

[Uberseehandel]

If you need to carry out a site survey yourself, then Ekahau is a good place to start. 

[SoCalRacer]

I haven't hear of those Model APs they look more like Cisco models.

My rough estimate with MR33 AP is 4-6 depending on dimensions and layout of the warehouse.

[GIdenJoe]

They are actually:  the 2802I or E are Aironet models.

[Adam42]

Yes, actually they are Aironet, i thought maybe there are some Meraki APs have the same performance as the Aironet (2802i) .

[PhilipDAth]

The Cisco 2800 series are part of the Cisco enterprise family, so you might be better asking over at:

https://community.cisco.com/ 

Although the 2800 series is still a current product its getting pretty "long in the tooth now".  You might want to consider the newer Cisco 9100 series APs.

In the Meraki family a lot of my warehouse customers use MR74's.  They are IP67 rated so don't mind an environment that's a bit dirty and they use external antennas.  They are a 2x2 AP.  They are a good fit for low data requirements like scanners.

https://meraki.cisco.com/products/wireless/mr74

Another option of merit is the next model up, the MR84.  It's also IP67 rated but has a 4x4 radio so it will handle more challenging RF environments and is likely to deliver higher data rates.  Note that it does need 802.3at power so make sure your switches can deliver this and have a PoE budget to be able to power all of the attached APs.

https://meraki.cisco.com/products/wireless/mr8 

The closest match to the 2802i and 2802e series AP would be the MR42 and MR42E.

https://meraki.cisco.com/products/wireless/mr42 

https://meraki.cisco.com/products/wireless/mr42e 

External antennas can push the price up quite a bit, and sometimes it works out better using more APs with integrated antennas (like the MR42).

If you were using the MR42E and mounting on the roof seems reasonable and possible, then you could consider using this downtilt antenna.  It is designed for mounting on roofs up to about 7.6m high pointing down (so it focuses most of its energy down rather than sideways).

https://meraki.cisco.com/products/wireless/antennas-power#MA-ANT-3-D5 

As a quick rule of thumb I like to allow each AP to have a coverage circle radius of 15m.  That gives good connectivity.  I make that to be about 706 m^2.  So in your case that comes out at about 4 x APs required.

[Nash]

Solid second on @PhilipDAth's recommendation of MR74 or MR84. Between the dust and potential temperature extremes, I've had clients have bad times when they bought indoor-rated APs for warehouse spaces.